


strange love, don't let the madness change us

by askmeaboutmyoctopustheory



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, West Coast Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/M, I will think of more tags but my brain is empty, MerMay, Quentin Is A Dork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24140827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory/pseuds/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory
Summary: By the time the small boat was ready to launch off of Krakoa, there was a visible disturbance in the water a ways out. The water was rippling and an occasional sluice of a fin could be seen as whatever was trapped thrashed just beneath the surface of the water. He telepathically reached out, trying to grasp onto anything to calm the creature down. When Quentin found a way he could communicate, he startled slightly.“Charles…”  He urgently broadcasted his thoughts to the ship's captain. “You’re not going to believe this-”Quentin shared what he had seen with the captain. All seafaring folk knew of mermaids and sirens. The captain’s partner was a siren himself. To come across a mer even once in a lifetime was remarkable.---gwentin pirate/mermaid AU
Relationships: Briefly Mentioned McSummers, Gwen Poole/Quentin Quire, background Cherik - Relationship
Comments: 14
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> howdy howdy whoo
> 
> it's the best time of the year! mermay!
> 
> i love these two and their idiot shenanigans so here we are
> 
> if you don't already know this, i studied marine biology so (hopefully) all the fish-y stuff is accurate
> 
> rated M for now because on twitter you weirdos voted for me to make this Spicey later on so
> 
> not canon-adjacent at all except for the mishmash of ones in my head

The ancient planks of the SS Krakoa creaked in the early morning wind that came off the sea. It’s inhabitants were already going about their daily tasks and among them stood Quentin with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

“Do you hear that?” He asked the ship’s captain, Charles.

“Do I hear what?” 

It was a fair question. Both men had the unlikely power of telepathy and concentrating outside of the din of normal ship life could be difficult. 

“It sounds like something in the water.” Quentin said mostly to himself as he leaned far over the side of the ship. “Something that’s sending a loud, subconscious distress signal.”

The ship held an odd assortment of folks who couldn’t fit in much anywhere else. They all had some sort of extraordinary ability. Some had refined and practiced their more ability than others. Charles would usually find some outcasted person with an odd ability in each port they stopped at. Some days the ship herself seemed to be sentient. 

“There’s definitely something out there.” The other telepath on the ship chimed in. “Something abnormal.”

Charles sighed.

“Don’t act like you haven’t literally jumped overboard before.” Jean raised her eyebrow at him. “Quentin, I'll open the tender.”

By the time the small boat was ready to launch off of Krakoa, there was a visible disturbance in the water a ways out. The water was rippling and an occasional sluice of a fin could be seen as whatever was trapped thrashed just beneath the surface of the water. He telepathically reached out, trying to grasp onto anything to calm the creature down. When Quentin found a way he could communicate, he startled slightly. 

_ “Charles…”  _ He urgently broadcasted his thoughts to the ship's captain. “ _ You’re not going to believe this-” _ _  
  
_

Quentin shared what he had seen with the captain. All seafaring folk knew of mermaids and sirens. The captain’s partner was a siren himself. To come across a mer even once in a lifetime was remarkable. 

_  
_ _ “I know, it’s probably injured. That’s the only reason merfolk come close to the surface.”  _ Charles thought back to him. “ _ I’ve already told Dr. McCoy.”  _

Quentin turned his focus back to the disturbance in the water. He had nearly rowed all the way to the churning water. 

_ “I’m here to help you…”  _ He tried to mentally connect to the mermaid as he carefully extended his hand into the water.

A sharp pain sliced through his hand and he retracted it with a hiss. Peering over the side with his eyes instead of his hand, he saw familiar light red and white stripes of a lionfish. But about five times larger. In between the spines and fins he saw blue eyes, wide with distress. Hints of blonde hair swirled with the undulating tail. His hand was beginning to swell so he swore and reached out to the captain.

_ “Need Logan. She’s poisonous.” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “Actually she’s venomous.”  _ Charles said offhandedly.  _ “Logan’s swimming out there now.” _

Quentin turned his attention back to the mermaid in the water. She seemed to be caught in a trawling net that had trapped some of her spines to her tail. Her human half was undisturbed by the entrapment but she was unable to regulate her buoyancy without full functionality of her tail. The panic on her face was clear though. 

“What’ve you pulled up now, Q?” The ship’s gunner, Logan, startled Quentin as he popped up in the water next to the dingy.

“I can’t untangle her without getting injured.” he gestured to his stung hand, which was swelling and an unpleasant color. 

Logan sighed but took a deep breath and disappeared underwater. The mermaid thrashed, trying to evade the diving knife that Logan kept up his sleeve. His skin healed itself even as the lionfish spines stabbed at him. 

_ “He’s going to help you…”  _ Quentin strained his telepathy to keep the mermaid calm while Logan cut her free of the netting that was clamped around her. 

As soon as she was free, the mermaid jolted out of Logan’s reach. She swam for a few yards before it became evident that the damage to her tail was making her list to the left and swim in a circle. Her movements became erratic and panicked again as her injury became more apparent. 

With one last mental strain, Quentin managed to calm her brain until she fell limp in the water. He wiped the blood dripping from his nose with his still-swelling hand and looked at Logan pleadingly.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll meet you on board.”

Quentin rowed along as Logan swam the mermaid towards the boat in a diver’s rescue pull. A fair amount of the Krakoa’s crew was amassed at the ship’s tender as they pulled the mermaid onboard. 

“What’d you do to her?” The ship’s doctor asked Quentin with a sharp eye.

“She was panicking!” He said back defensively. “I was just trying to calm her down and she passed out in shock.” He then brandished his misshapen hand at Dr. McCoy. “Also I got stung.”   
  
“Yeah, just submerge it in hot water. Like boiling hot.” Hank said dismissively. “I have a lot bigger things to worry about.”

As if on cue, the mermaid twitched erratically. Logan grunted slightly as a new set of slash marks from the spines appeared on his leg closest to the mermaid. Hank’s enhanced reflexes allowed him to avoid damage but the rest of the crew just watched on with wide eyes.

“Right.” McCoy said with an air of finality. “Let’s move her to the infirmary.” 

Charles shooed the rest of the crew back to the upper decks while Logan moved the mermaid the last bit of the way to the medical bay in the hull of the ship. Quentin trailed behind them with his hand in a bucket of hot water that the sailing master Ororo had brought him. He was working on keeping the mermaid subdue until Hank could assess the damage and then would bring her back to consciousness safely. 

“Her spines are pretty badly damaged.” Hank said as he examined the mermaid’s tail on his examination table. “I’m guessing she’s been stuck for quite a bit considering she’s a bit malnourished.”

“So…?”   
  


Hank ran his hand through his hair, making it messier than it already was. “So, I’ll do as much as I can to help her but they don’t exactly teach this in medical school, Q.”

“I don’t think they teach you about people with superhuman speed and telepathy either and yet here we are.”

Hank just sighed and looked over the unconscious mermaid. “I’ll do my best. You can release your telepathic hold on her, I’m done with what I can do right now.”

“I did a little while ago.” Quentin replied, leaning against the wall from the stool he was perched on. “She’s just asleep now. How long do I have to keep my hand in this water?”   
  
“Until the swelling goes down.” Hank responded. “You staying down here?”

“Yeah, I’ll wait til she wakes up to try and explain…” Quentin gestured with his hand that wasn’t in the bucket. “What’s going on.”

Hank nodded and shut the door to the infirmary behind him, leaving Quentin alone with the mermaid. His hand was getting wrinkled in the water that he was still soaking it in and he idly wondered if the mermaid needed to be kept in water. She was still breathing without trouble so it clearly wasn’t imperative. 

Quentin used this opportunity to look over the seldom-seen creature. Her hair was streaked with pink a few shades lighter than the stripes of her tail. It was drying into loose waves past her shoulders. Hank was right that she seemed malnourished. Her ribs jutted out below the slight swell of her breasts and her hip bones were prominent above her tail. The spines spiking off of her back and arms were pale and discolored. 

The mermaid remained asleep for many hours, long enough for Quentin’s hand to de-swell and Charles to come down with dinner for him. Quentin could feel the older telepath’s easy presence in his mind, reading his mood and periphery thoughts.

“Is this how you felt with Erik?” Quentin asked quietly, not taking his eyes off the motionless figure of the mermaid.

Charle’s brain subconsciously brought forth memories of his lover. The siren that had been held captive by a pirate. Bound with metal and tossed into the sea with no chance of survival. Charles had launched himself overboard when he had heard the distressed thoughts of the siren, pulling the trapped man onto the  _ Krakoa _ and freeing him. Erik, was his name, and he sadly had to return to the island he inhabited. Charles would visit him at Genosha several times a year, but the ship’s crew knew that their captain yearned to stay there full-time. Several of Erik’s children who he had had with human women had made their way onto the ship’s ranks over the years. 

“I’m not sure, Quentin.” Charles responded, equally hushed. The problem with telepaths was that they were often not verbally eloquent. “Something drew you to her, like something drew me to Erik. But this is your life, not mine.”

He stood up with a clap on Quentin’s shoulder and left him alone in the infirmary again. 

Quentin just picked at the pickled vegetables and shrimp that had been served for dinner. He looked over at the mermaid every few bites and realized that her scales seemed to be receding. Her hair was completely dry and her spines had shrunk significantly.

“Hank!” Quentin ran from the infirmary, racing up the stairs to the upper decks of the ship. “HANK.”

The doctor stumbled out of the door of the boatswain’s room, tugging a shirt on and shoving his glasses onto his face. Quentin blinked a few times at the image before him.

“You and Summers are hooking up?”

Hank’s face flushed a bit in the stark lighting of the ship’s quarters. “What do you need, Q?”

“Oh!” Quentin remembered why he had come up in the first place. “The mermaid! Something’s happening.”

He raced back down the steps to the infirmary, hearing Hank catch up to him quickly with his enhanced speed. Quentin stopped short in the doorway, however, at what he saw when he opened the door. Hank slammed into his back a moment later and they both stumbled into the small room. Both looked at each other in shock and back at the table.

The mermaid no longer had a tail. The scales that had dotted her torso and arms were no more, the spines having shrunken into her skin. Her legs were crossed and her long, pink streaked hair pulled in front of her shoulders but did little to conceal the fact that she was quite naked. 

“Jesus.” Hank blushed deeply and seemed to slap his hand over his eyes. 

Quentin laughed and pulled his t-shirt over his head with one hand and tossed it to the girl. “Do you- shit. Do you speak, uh. Human?”

The no-longer-mermaid pulled the shirt over her head and grinned. “Yes, I do. I speak English even.”

“But- Earlier-” Quentin seemed to be tripping over his words as she adjusted herself on the table.

“I was in shock, you crawdad.” 

Hank snorted at that, his face still pink. “I like you, you can stay.” 

  
“Thank you, doctor. Thank you for helping me, both of you.”   
  
“You have a name? Something we can call you?”   
  
“Call me Gwen.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dear readers,
> 
> today i offer you
> 
> NOTHING
> 
> you're welcom
> 
> i'm sorry this is short and like akfjasldfk ji'm sorry the world is a crazy place rn

  
  


Hank and Quentin found an unused room and spare clothing for Gwen to sleep in for the night and assured her that they would answer more questions in the morning. She smiled at them but was obviously still quite exhausted from the day's events. Quentin himself couldn’t quite believe all that had transpired. His sleep was fitful and he dreamed of the endless sea. 

The crew was gathered together the next morning at breakfast. A few of the women on the crew were sitting around Gwen, asking her questions and eyeing her hair enviously. Charles seemed to be discussing something with Hank, who was talking wildly with his hands. Quentin just slouched in and flopped onto a bench close enough to the women that he could hear their conversation. However they all turned to look at him when he sat and Gwen smiled at him.

“Good morning. I didn’t happen to get your name yesterday, I think you were a bit busy saving my life.”

Quentin blinked through his brain fog and tried to focus. She was right, he had been mostly busy making sure she was alive. Now that it was obvious she was alive, he was distracted by cold hard evidence to the fact that old sailors tales didn’t overexaggerate the beauty of mermaids. 

“I- What?” Quentin stuttered as her clear blue eyes creased in laughter. 

“Your name, valiant savior.” She repeated in a teasing voice. 

“Oh.” Quentin felt his face heating. “It’s uh-Quentin.”

She beamed at him and he busied himself with getting some food on the large table and ignoring the teasing thoughts the girls were sending towards him. To give himself something to do, he pulled out his compass and noticed that they were no longer sailing the direction they had been the day prior.

“We headin’ into port?” He asked the general gathering of people.

“No we’re heading-uh.” The sailing master Ororo started to say.

“We’re going back to my reef.” Gwen finished for her. 

“Hmm.” Quentin nodded and swallowed. “How long will that take?”  
  


“Probably a day or so.” Ororo said.

“You’ll be back on course in no time.” Gwen reassured.

Quentin didn’t respond, instead sipping broodily on the coffee that they had picked up at the last port. He remembered what Charles had told him the day before, that something must have drawn him to Gwen. But he didn’t know how to express this. 

“ _You think too loud.”_ Jean’s voice came in his head. _“Just spend time getting to know her. If you truly have this ~connection~ she’ll feel it too.”_

_“Buzz off.”_ Quentin thought back. He noticed that the others were starting to disperse, suddenly remembering that they had urgent chores. “ _Thanks_ ”

Gwen seemed to be content just watching the goings-on around the ship with her wide blue eyes. The other women had dressed her in a simple linen dress with a leather corset over. Her pink hair was all the more obvious against the plain colors of the ship and her clothing. 

“Is this your first time… uh. Being human?” Quentin asked her finally. 

She nodded. “Some of us have easier time switching back and forth. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to fully transform because of all my spines.”

“Probably not the easiest place to learn how to walk.” Quentin observed as the  _ Krakoa _ lurched to the side from a gust of wind and she grabbed onto him for stability “Sorry bout that.”

“‘S alright. Not your fault.” Gwen steadied herself and smiled at him sunnily.

“Why don’t we find somewhere to sit, more stable yeah?” He asked uncertainty. “I wanna learn more about being a mermaid.”

“Of course!” She grinned again. “I want to learn more about being a human! I don’t know when I’ll have another chance!”

“You been to the library yet?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway donate to bail funds in your city


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> thank you for bearing with me as i was slow to update this oof
> 
> i made a small change to the end of the last chapter but it shouldn't be too noticable slash i doubt anyone will remember

Quentin watched as Gwen floated around the library, touching the heavy books and globes on Xavier’s desk and bookshelves. He tried very hard not to intrude into her mind but just a peripheral telepathic dip into her head showed how in awe she was of the ship’s library. 

“Charles- Uh. Captain Xavier really likes to read, he knows so much about everything.” He saw her pause and look at the smaller bookshelf behind the desk, thumbing across a well-worn green leather spine. “That’s uh.”   
  
“Merfolk: the Forgotten people of the sea?” Gwen read off the cover.

“Captain’s own partner is a siren.” Quentin mumbled in explanation. “He lives on an island somewhere out East, buncha merfolk-”   
  
“Genosha?” Gwen asked with wide eyes.

“Uh. Yeah.” He was taken aback by her sudden intensity. 

“That is...wow” Gwen finished quietly. “I’ve heard of it, it’s well-known amongst merfolk. I have never been though.”   
  


“Tell me about it.” Quentin sat down on the sofa and gestured next to him. 

Gwen brought the heavy book over and opened it up, tracing the words with a finger. “A mermaid named Mystique is the most well-known. She travelled with the man who would eventually found Genosha. Sirens have a way about them that is magnetic, they can’t help but draw people to them. Eventually they needed a place to settle, so Genosha is where many merfolk and sirens and welcome land-walkers live. I know a few merfamilies who have gone to live there.”

“Mer… Families?”   
  
“A friend of mine, Jubilee. She and her son and her partner went after her partner got in an accident with a naval mine.” 

“You don’t…” Quentin started and floundered over his words. “Do you have family there?”   
  


Gwen smiled with a bit of sadness in her eyes. “No, I got separated from my family at a young age. I’ve lived on the reef with a bit of a ragtag bunch of merfolk since.”

“Tell me about them.” Quentin pulled his knees up to rest his chin on them and listen to Gwen. 

She told him about her close friends Kate and Kamala and Miles, and the reef they had grown up on. She told him about the other merfolk that would seasonally come to the warm waters of their tropical reef. She flipped through Charles’ book and pointed out any humorous inaccuracies in the folklore mentioned. A lock of her long, pink-tipped hair flopped in front of her eyes.

Gwen made a little noise in the middle of her speech about geothermal vents when Quentin hooked his finger around the strand of hair and pushed it back behind her ear. 

“Sorry.” He muttered. “I was listening.”

“I know you are.” Gwen said earnestly. “You’re always listening. Not everyone notices that you do, but I noticed.”

“I can’t really help it.” He shrugged and started to pull his hand away but Gwen caught it and pressed it to her mouth in a vague kiss.

“I’ve seen humans do this before…” She mumbled afterwards, cheeks pinking as well. 

Quentin chuckled and unfolded to lean into her. “Try it like this instead.” And pressed a soft kiss on her slightly salty lips.

  
  


Epilogue

“Anchors aweigh!” Ororo shouted as they pulled into a bay. 

Quentin was standing with Gwen near the ship’s tender where they had pulled her out of the water, pale and terrified, only a few days earlier. She was only wrapped in a spare sheet and eyes were alight with excitement as she looked out at the gentle waves. The water was sparkling clear and there were fins sluicing through the surface towards the boat.

The head and torso of a woman with tanned skin and dark hair was the first to appear above the surface near the boat. 

“Kamala!” Gwen called out to her. “It’s so good to see you!”

A few more heads popped up above the surface but the mermaid named Kamala swam closer to the boat.

“We were so worried!” She called up to the tender. “We heard the boat coming though and hoped it might be you. Not many come this way on purpose.”

Kamala closed her eyes and almost looked like she was holding her breath. But when she re-opened them, her tail had grown almost twice the size and her upper body had grown with it. 

“Pufferfish….” Quentin said in awe.

“Jump, Gwen. I’ll catch you!” Kamala outstretched her arms above the water.

“Well. I guess this is it.” Quentin said as he shifted from foot to foot. “I’m glad I met you, Gwen.”

Gwen just looked over at him with a grin before pulling his face to her with both hands and kissing him hard. Ignoring the hoots and whistles from both the water and the ship deck, they canoodled for several minutes before pulling apart. 

“You know where to find me.” She said with a wink before jumping off the side of the boat.

There was a grunt as she landed in Kamala’s arms and a series of splashes. When Quentin squinted out against the sun he could see that the scales leading up her torso and arms had returned, along with her spines and webbed hands. With one last wave towards the boat, Gwen dove under the surface leaving only a splash of her tail behind. 

“ _ Tell me boy, IS it like how I am with Erik?”  _ Quentin heard Charles’ voice inside his head. 

_ “You said so yourself Xavier, it’s my life, not yours.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on twitter @AskAboutOcto

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/_AMAMOT) or i’m on [tumblr](https://askmeaboutmyoctopustheory.tumblr.com/)


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